Taylor, Pitts run for Fairfield

FAIRFIELD TWP. -- Encouraged by township Democrats, former Mayor Don Taylor and Troy Pitts filed to run for township committee on Tuesday, the deadline to do so.

Pitts is a longtime township resident, but has not previously run for committee here.

Taylor served as mayor during the 1990s.

Both men filed as independents for the November election.

This doesn't come as a surprise to many familiar with local politics, as some said before and immediately following the primary that a deadline filing was possible.

"We did talk to them about it, but it was their decision to run," said current Mayor Marion Kennedy of previous discussions with Taylor and Pitts.

Kennedy had endorsed Angeline Pierce and Michael Sharp in the primary. Pierce and Ernest Zirkle, both of whom serve on the township planning board, were the two winners.

Zirkle is a member of the Fairfield Taxpayers Association (FTA), a group historically critical of Kennedy and many of the current committee's decisions. A longtime Republican, he recently switched to the Democratic Party.

In late May, Kennedy wrote a letter to the editor, published in The News, criticizing Zirkle for the switch.

"If you can't be upfront about your true party affiliation, Mr. Zirkle, how can you be trusted to run our township, if you start off trying to deceive the people?" he wrote.

In second letter to the editor, Kennedy also sharply criticized two other primary candidates, deputy municipal clerk Geneva Griffin and former committee member Viola Thomas-Hughes, while endorsing Pierce and Sharp.

Zirkle on Thursday said he found it ironic that Kennedy criticized him for his change, but encouraged Taylor to switch from Democrat to independent in order to run in November.

He also said he plans to remain an FTA member if elected to committee.

"I don't have any personal hard feelings against Mr. Zirkle," Kennedy said on Thursday, before Zirkle was contacted by The News. "I appointed him to the planning board because of his expertise.

"Hopefully, the township will keep moving forward. That is what's most important. I think the people who get in there will be team players."

The News was unable to obtain the telephone numbers of Taylor and Pitts from the county clerk's office, the county Board of Election and Kennedy on Thursday.